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'A 1-0 score line is not the same as a 1-1 but this is half time," Cardoso said.
Miguel Cardoso, Head coach of Mamelodi Sundowns during the CAF Champions League Final 1st Leg match against Pyramids FC at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, on 24 May 2025 ©Phakamisa Lensman/BackpagePix
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has bemoaned the lapse in concentration that led to Pyramids FC’s equaliser in the 1-1 draw in the first leg of the CAF Champions League final.
Sundowns must score
The Brazilians must score in next Sunday’s return match if they are to have any chance of winning their second Champions League title. A goalless draw would suit the Egyptian team because of the away goals rule.
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Unlike the UEFA Champions League in Europe, CAF still uses the away goals rule. That puts Pyramids in the pound seat ahead of the second leg, which will determine the winner of this year’s competition.
“A 1-0 score line is not the same as a 1-1 but this is half time and we still have to play and it will be a different game obviously,” Cardoso said.
“With the high pressure that Pyramids put on us I think in the beginning we had difficulties to cope with it in order to play the game that we wanted because our positioning was not the best on the pitch.
“I could have waited a little bit but I decided to change immediately in the first half to rebalance the team and mostly to have the capacity of having more of the ball. We started the second half very well and after we scored the goal, I think we started thinking more about the result rather than going for the second goal.
“We were asking them to play more because I think that is the way you should defend the result by keeping the ball and managing it. Unfortunately, from a play where we made not one but several mistakes with one minute to go, we lost the ball and there was a cross.”
Cardoso – ‘We have the capacity’
Cardoso has vowed to fight in order to overturn the result away from home. The Portuguese manager was on the losing side in last year’s final against Al Ahly while in charge of Tunisian giants Esperance.
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“There’s only one thing to do and that’s by picking up the attitude and going there because we have the capacity to score more than one goal to balance the game to our side and take it from them,” he concluded.
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